Here are some of my latest comments relating to some of the articles and video projects found at The Forerunner. Check back for my thoughts on eschatology, world missions, God’s Law and Society, pro-life activism, evangelism testimonies, Neo-Puritanism, revival and spiritual awakening, church history, and so on. Use the navigation sidebar to see Forerunner Weblog articles by category or see the blog archive for the category listing.

Frank Schaeffer Will You Please Shut Up! (Book)

High Quality Paperback — 200 pages

A Reasonable Response to Christian Postmodernism

Includes a response to the bookChristian Jihadby Colonel V. Doner

The title of this book is a misnomer. In reality, I am not trying to get anyone to shut up, but rather to provoke a discussion. This book is a warning about the philosophy of “Christian postmodernism” and the threat that it poses not only to Christian orthodoxy, but to the peace and prosperity our culture as well. The purpose is to equip the reader with some basic principles that can be used to refute their arguments.

Part 1 is a response to some of the recent writings by Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Francis Schaeffer. This was originally written as a defense against Frank’s attacks on pro-life street activism – a movement that his father helped bring into being through his books, A Christian Manifesto, How Should We Then Live? and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? These works have impacted literally hundreds of thousands of Christian activists.

Part 2 is a response to Colonel Doner and his book, Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America. Doner was one of the key architects of the Christian Right that emerged in the 1980s, who now represents the disillusionment and defection many Christian activists experienced in the 1990s and 2000s. There is still great hope for America to be reformed according to biblical principles. As a new generation is emerging, it is important to recognize the mistakes that Christian activists have made in the past even while holding to a vision for the future.

Millions of abortions is just statistics, a single murder of a Person is a tragedy!

You may have already seen the latest scandal involving tax-funded Planned Parenthood flouting federal law by selling body parts of aborted babies — including hearts, lungs and livers — for medical research.

A YouTube video has gone viral and millions of people have already seen and heard undercover footage of Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Deborah Nucatola, as she callously munches salad and sips red wine over an executive lunch with pro-life activists posing as peddlers of fetal organs.

We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.

The video also shows an actual on-line order form where medical research companies can illegally order preborn human body parts for experimentation and research.

The outcry over this has been monumental. However, in my support of Personhood, I have been torn that over one million preborn babies are slaughtered each year, while the selling of the body parts is what has led to the outcry of horror and disgust. However, I understand that is simply human nature to focus on individual stories or examples of tragedy that humanize the victims. Otherwise we are just hearing numbers and political debate.

In the days of the Soviet Union, when the tyrant Joseph Stalin was Commissar, a meeting was held of the highest-ranking officials to discuss the famine in the Ukraine. One official arose to make a speech about the tragedy of having millions of people dying of hunger. He began the death count in the different provinces. Stalin interrupted him to say:

If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.

— Joseph Stalin

The point Stalin was making was that for propaganda purposes most people can’t fathom and don’t care if they hear that millions are dying all around them – as long as they don’t see it or hear much about it. However, if just one is humanized, it is a great tragedy.

Likewise, if you studied the Holocaust in school, you may have been horrified by stories of the Nazis selling lampshades made of the skin of executed Jews – and soap made from body parts of executed human beings.

When we consider abortion, our objective must be to humanize the victim, the preborn child, as a Person. Millions of abortions is just statistics, a single murder of a Person is a tragedy!

We must also be wary that pro-life laws that simply regulate abortion and include multiple “exceptions” for abortion may actually end up being counter-productive. This strategy undermines our stand for the Truth that each of these little ones in the womb is a human Person made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:41-44).

Will you help us to educate Florida voters and legislators and ultimately get a state constitutional amendment initiative on the Florida ballot that will allow the people to recognize and defend the Personhood of all human beings at every stage of biological development?

Otherwise, our pro-life activity will continue to be bogged down with a confusing array of unsuccessful attempts to regulate the industry of child murder, while existing laws are flouted left and right by the abortion giant Planned Parenthood and dozens of other “legal” child murder centers throughout our state.

The pro-abortion advocates already have learned how to deflect guilt by condemning the “bad” abortionists and claiming the videos of undercover sting investigations are “heavily edited” and “false allegations” — even though the unedited versions have also been released. An article at ThinkProgress.org makes the following claim.

The political response is reminiscent of the way that lawmakers handled the controversy over Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an illegal abortion provider who was arrested for preying on low-income women in his unsanitary clinic in Philadelphia. After horrifying details emerged about how Gosnell broke the law, Live Action released a misleading “investigation” claiming that legal abortion providers across the country were guilty of similar crimes. GOP lawmakers obliged by initiating an investigation into abortion clinics — which came up totally empty, finding evidence only that clinics are already highly regulated and quite safe.

No, this is a typical smokescreen by the pro-abortion media. Our Republican Congress did not launch a nationwide investigation into abortion. In fact, when we drill down into the “fine print” of this article, we find nothing but a cited statement from another pro-abortion group begging the question as to whether any investigations were being carried out in response to Gosnell at the time of the article’s writing.

After sifting through the data, RH Reality Check [a pro-abortion advocacy group] concluded that “congressional Republicans will find no support for their arguments in favor of new restrictions on abortion care in the evidence presented by the states.”

The article offers nothing but smoke and mirrors to substantiate that there has been a “national investigation into abortion clinics.” Meanwhile here in Florida, we know of numerous examples of abortionists who have delivered babies born alive and left them to die, who participated in illegal drug trafficking and violated numerous Florida laws.

We are in the middle of the fight to expose these abortion centers. We helped expose the attempt of Planned Parenthood here in Kissimmee to open a surgical abortion mega-center – in violation of a code banning surgical centers in a medical park.

Currently, Planned Parenthood is counter-suing a group of doctors in a medical park in Kissimmee, Florida, where no surgery is allowed, to continue to operate a surgical abortion center. Outrageously, Planned Parenthood was able to use their political clout to go “judge shopping” and get a stay on a temporary injunction that would have forced them to cease surgical abortions.

Yet even these efforts – as important as they are – can become a distraction. Fighting lawsuits and advocating for more regulations can result in the pro-life movement losing its emphasis on ending abortion.

The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) inspects Florida abortion centers at least once a year and several times for those that have a history of violations. Yet abortionists who have had their licenses suspended and have had a long string of law violations are allowed to continue after a “slap on the wrist.”

We cannot continue to merely regulate the abortion industry. Personhood Florida does not impugn the motive or strategies of other pro-life groups who are working hard and doing what they can. We neither fight against nor support these regulative laws. This can never be our strategy or goal.

Unless the public is educated and we establish Personhood in hearts and minds, regulations and exceptions to abortion will continue to yield the bitter fruit of the slide of our culture into these horrors. We will only see the continued degradation of these precious little ones made in the image of God.

Will you help Personhood Florida to once and for all legally recognize and defend the Personhood of all human beings at every stage of human development?

The United States of America 2.0: The Great Reset (Book)

High Quality Paperback — 40 pages of dynamite!

Revival, Resistance, Reformation, RevolutionAn Introduction to the Doctrines of Interposition and Nullification

In 1776, a short time after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were assigned to design an official seal for the United States of America. Their proposed motto was Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. America owes its existence to centuries of Christian political philosophy. Our nation provided a model for liberty copied by nations the world over.

By the 21st century, we need a “Puritan Storm” to sweep away the Hegelian notion that the state is “God walking on earth.” We need revival and reformation in full force to vanquish the problems that plague us as a nation — from government controlled healthcare — to abortion on demand — to same sex “marriage.” This booklet gives a primer on our founders’ Christian idea of government and examines how the doctrine of nullification was woven into the Constitution as a safeguard against federal tyranny. It concludes with the history and theology of civil resistance. A Second American Revolution is coming with the Word of God growing mightily and prevailing! (Acts 19:20).

ORLANDO, Florida (www.Forerunner.com) – American Liberties Institute attorneys filed suit in federal court Monday against the City of Winter Park, Florida, alleging the City unconstitutionally arrested two people under the City’s picketing code.

In 2012, the City adopted two new City codes that have prevented peaceful free speech activities. On May 18, 2013, the City enforced the “anti-picketing” City code by arresting two people peacefully standing on a public sidewalk in Winter Park. The two Plaintiffs challenging the arrests – Mr. Jay Rogers and Dr. Pat McEwen – were not violating any laws when the SWAT team swooped in and hauled them off to jail. Mr. Jay Rogers was standing on the public sidewalk holding a video camera. Dr. Pat McEwen was holding a Bible. The City incarcerated them both for “picketing where prohibited,” claiming they had violated a 50-foot buffer zone erected by one of the newly enacted City codes. After pursuing the criminal charges for nearly two years, Winter Park’s attorneys recently dropped the cases.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down one of the newly enacted codes regulating “loitering” because it violated the constitutional protections for freedom of speech. The same court also held the other code regulating “picketing” was constitutional as written, but only if applied in a limited manner, holding “[T]he Plaintiffs remain free to march, to proselytize, and to distribute literature within 50 feet of the dwelling unit. They can even picket. If their picketing does not target a particular person, group of persons, or type of person who resides in the dwelling unit, they can continue to engage in general picketing within the buffer area.” In court filings, Winter Park’s attorneys argued no person could enter the 50-foot buffer zone.

Winter Park’s police, however, stated contradictory interpretations at various times. At some times, Winter Park officers were stating people could not enter the 50-foot buffer zone, while at other times officers were stating people were allowed to enter the 50-foot buffer zone.

“The federal court struck down one of the City’s anti-speech codes and limited the other. However, the City enforced the code in a manner directly contrary to the federal court’s opinion,” said ALI’s President, Frederick (“Rick”) Nelson. “Citizens should be concerned when local governments attempt to impose burdens upon peaceful free speech. This is a classic example of Winter Park overreaching by enforcing the code in a clearly unconstitutional manner.”

Imagine for a moment if pro-life Senator answered, when asked, “Are you pro-life?”

“Yes, I am pro-life. I’m against partial-birth abortions. I’m against federal funding of abortions. And I believe in a strong parental consent notification law.”

Pro-lifers for the most part would gladly accept that response.

Remember that position: Pro-life. That is the position of Clarke Forsythe and Americans United for Life, the Roman Catholic Bishops, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum, National Right to Life and a host of other groups. They have each actively opposed or refused to endorse the Personhood initiative — a strategy for passing state amendments that would recognize the right to life of all human beings from conception to natural death — thinking that pushing for an outright ban on abortion would be counter-productive at this point in time. Instead, they choose the pragmatic approach. To be fair, I must point out that these individuals and organizations actually do support Personhood, but only deny that it is the correct strategy at the current time.

Meanwhile, in the current political climate, Senator Scott Brown from Roman Catholic and Democratic Party dominated Massachusetts, once said in a campaign interview, when asked, “Are you pro-choice?”

“Yes … The difference between me and maybe others is that I’m very — I’m against partial-birth abortions. I’m against federal funding of abortions. And I believe in a strong parental consent notification law” (Barbara Walters interview, ABC News, Jan. 31, 2010).

The point here is that whenever we speak of the incremental strategy, what we are speaking of are laws that literally advocate the position of Roe v. Wade and “pro-choice” rhetoric. Roe use the exceptions to allow abortion under certain circumstances. On the same day that Roe was handed down, the companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, expanded these exceptions to abortion on demand.

Immediatists like to point this out whenever a compromised law is proposed. Incrementalists like to point out that even the most compromised laws might save some lives and we need to “do what we can” while Roe stands as a legal precedent. I strongly encourage people on both sides of the debate to stop using the straw man terms of “incrementalism” vs. “immediatism.” This is a false dichotomy. We should begin to speak in terms of obedience to God’s law vs. willful sin. In reality, the Abolish Human Abortion movement speaks of the immediate abolition of abortion and yet still proposes “seven stages of abolitionism.” In reality, those speaking of the strategy of incrementalism want the abolition of all abortion.

The issue isn’t “gradual vs. immediate” or “incremental vs. absolute.” The issue is whether we are willing to compromise God’s moral mandates found in scripture.

We must cease to think in terms of tactics and think instead in terms of God’s ultimate strategy in using His Church. So my resolution to self now is whenever I find myself tempted to go off the rails into the immediatist vs. incrementalist debate on some well-known social media network, I think of the following Bob Newhart comedy sketch, “Just Stop It!”

Strategy vs. Tactics

Our overall strategy must be to end abortion. All Christians can all agree on that. A tactic is a method or means to an end. When we employ a tactic, we need to ask two questions. First, is our method pleasing to God? Second, is it an effective use of our talents, time and resources? A tactic that is effective, yet violates God’s commandments – dishonoring to our God or our parents, murder, lust, theft, bearing false witness, covetousness – is a sinful tactic. A strategy to end abortion that is not Christ-centered grieves the heart of God. Yet not all think this way. I recently read a comment by a well-known “pro-life” leader who literally wrote:

I, frankly, don’t care how we get there, but I’m going to save every baby I can, I’m going to close every abortion mill, I’m going to crush the enemy in every way I can, and if y’all think it’s wrong, stupid, or immoral I could care less. Maybe Jesus will send me to hell, but I’ll be okay as long as I kick the “rear” of the baby killers. I’m here for one reason: to win! Period end. I’m going to win by hook or by crook. And I refuse to stand on some fictitious moral high ground as long as babies are being murdered. I’ll leave the moral high ground and wallow in the mud with the pigs — as long as the babies win.

I can only hope that this person was being sarcastic and that this does not truly represent his view. But I have actually heard many pro-life leaders use similar rhetoric. I post this quote because it speaks volumes about the spirit behind a certain segment within the “anti-abortion” movement. (I used that term because I hesitate to even call them “pro-life.”) Over the years, I have had long conversations with people who believe in so many words that “the ends justify the means” in ending the abortion holocaust.

God’s Strategy: The Church

To counter that idea, I use the following quote by 19th century Arminian evangelist Charles Finney (a man whose theology I have many disagreements with) who was correct about the need for the Church to be an army to bring about the reformation to society.

Now the great business of the church is to reform the world—to put away every kind of sin. The church of Christ was originally organized to be a body of reformers. The very profession of Christianity implies the profession and virtually an oath to do all that can be done for the universal reformation of the world. The Christian church was designed to make aggressive movements in every direction—to lift up her voice and put forth her energies against iniquity in high and low places—to reform individuals, communities, and governments, and never rest until the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High God—until every form of iniquity shall be driven from the earth.

Jesus said the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. The important point is that we are moving as the Church, not as a pro-life organization. This does not necessarily mean an institutional church – although that would be ideal. The institutional church has government, material resources and the mandate to make disciples. However, the “church,” from a minimalist point of view, can be “two or more” who are gathered on the foundation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Regardless of tactics, we must go forward in a Christ-centered mindset. Our way of thinking ought to be that wherever two or more are gathered, Jesus Christ is at the center, not on the periphery.

I submit that the source of incremental thinking is a Christ-less, Church-less strategy that sees that politics is the art of compromise. If you can’t get a whole loaf of bread, it’s better to get a few crumbs than to starve. God’s plan is much higher than that. His strategy through the Church is infinitely more powerful. I have never thought that the solution to the abortion holocaust is political. However, if the Church led by courageous pastors and elders would stand up in a unified force against wickedness, we can see any evil stopped in its tracks.

Can we really legislate morality?

A friend of mine who was a pastor and leader in the Operation Rescue movement, Phil Vollman, gave a great answer to this question in the 1990s. What I like about his response is that Phil will be the first to tell you that he points the finger at himself as one who knows weakness and failure. Yet despite our failures, we must stand up in this hour and be bold and courageous.

To pastors, I speak as a pastor and I want pastors to hear me. Two things are needed in this hour. Number one, sound orthodoxy is needed. For as one noted theologian has noted recently, “You can’t beat something with nothing.” If we don’t return to a Reformed faith, that is to say, the orthodox historic Reformed faith, we will not have the tools ethically to take dominion in the earth in time and history as Christ Jesus has commanded us to do. There is no arguing that point.

But there is something else that is needed on this hour and I think it is equally important. Pastors need courage. There is a great famine of courage. It will take courage to embrace the historic Reformed orthodox Christian faith. I know this personally. But it will also take courage once we have embraced that faith to apply that faith then in time and history locally in our neighborhoods where we live. When God begins to judge a nation, the first thing he does is begin to give his people a cowardly clergy. I am very fearful today that America is being sanctioned, judged, with cowardly clergy. They are all around us. You look at the clergy today and what do you see? You see politically correct and religiously correct men of the cloth who are afraid to speak the truth for Christ.

What is it costing us? So far there are over 40 million dead babies. Militant homosexuality, militant feminism, militant humanism are running amok in our culture. We have a madman in Michigan named Jack Kevorkian who has right now killed or been responsible for over 86 deaths. There is not one prosecutor in Michigan who will stand up to him. We have two states now with right to die laws. And we have the most wicked, vile president in our history. There is no end in sight.

Now I’m a pastor. I know about fear. I know about loneliness. I know about the loss of reputation. But I am convinced that if we don’t see a revival in courage in this nation. If we don’t see some men begin to stand up in courage, conviction and Christian principle and stand faithfully in a world of cowardice and compromise, then we are going to deserve everything that is coming our way, we and our children.

The great Russian prophet, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote many prophetic things about his own people and the future of America.

When asked, what went wrong in Russia that God would visit upon them the brutality of communism, he only had one thing to say, “Russia forgot God.” America has forgotten her God. She’s forgotten her God because her shepherds have forgotten her God. This is not rocket science. When the pastors are walking in the fear of God and yet the comfort of the Holy Ghost, when the pastors are teaching sound orthodoxy, when they are wedding that with courage, to the things that they must do, there is victory, there is peace, and there is hope.

If we don’t see a raising of the black regiment in this hour. If we don’t see a parson’s revolution. Well then I would say, America is about to enter a long and a dark period. For as the pastors go so goes the Church. As the Church goes, so goes the nation.

Massacre of Innocence (DVD)

Exposing The Occult Roots of Abortion

This presentation looks at the spiritual roots of abortion and exposes the myths surrounding child killing. Little known historical facts about abortion and how they relate to modern feminism are presented logically and accurately. Has been effective in converting many to a pro-life position.

Massacre of Innocence goes where no pro-life presentation has gone before in “tearing the lid off abortion” to reveal the spiritual realities we must battle if we will bring an end to this crime. The presentation is absorbing, fast-paced, informative and incredibly devastating to any attempt to justify abortion.

“… an extraordinary statement … a powerfully articulate presentation about what abortion really means, and why a great and moral nation like the United States must not allow the slaughter to continue.”— Congressman Robert K. Dornan

Go Stand Speak (DVD)

With “preaching to the lost” being such a basic foundation of Christianity, why do many in the church seem to be apathetic on this issue of preaching in highways and byways of towns and cities?

Is it biblical to stand in the public places of the world and proclaim the gospel, regardless if people want to hear it or not?

Does the Bible really call church pastors, leaders and evangelists to proclaim the gospel in the public square as part of obedience to the Great Commission, or is public preaching something that is outdated and not applicable for our day and age?

Martin Luther: Digitally Remastered 1953 Classic (DVD)

“Here I stand … I can do no other!”

With these immortal words, an unknown German monk sparked a spiritual revolution that changed the world.

The dramatic classic film of Martin Luther’s life was released in theaters worldwide in the 1950s and was nominated for two Oscars. A magnificent depiction of Luther and the forces at work in the surrounding society that resulted in his historic reform efforts, this film traces Luther’s life from a guilt-burdened monk to his eventual break with the Roman Catholic Church.

A Revival Account: Asbury 1970 (DVD)

What is true Revival and Spiritual Awakening?

Discover the answer in this eyewitness account by Dennis Kinlaw, President of Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky, who recounts the story of a visitation of the Holy Spirit in 1970. This is the presentation that has continued to spark the flames of Revival in the hearts of people around the world. Contains eyewitness footage from the Revival at Asbury College in 1970 in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Certain to challenge you to greater holiness and a deeper commitment to full-scale revival. Original news and private footage has been included. If you are a student who longs to see a spiritual awakening at your school, you must see this video!

“This simple video does a wonderful job of conveying something of God’s heart and power, Everyone we have ever shown this to has received an immediate impartation of faith for revival and the power of prayer.”— Bob and Rose Weiner, Weiner Ministries Int’l

The United States of America 2.0: The Great Reset (Book)

High Quality Paperback — 40 pages of dynamite!

Revival, Resistance, Reformation, RevolutionAn Introduction to the Doctrines of Interposition and Nullification

In 1776, a short time after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were assigned to design an official seal for the United States of America. Their proposed motto was Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. America owes its existence to centuries of Christian political philosophy. Our nation provided a model for liberty copied by nations the world over.

By the 21st century, we need a “Puritan Storm” to sweep away the Hegelian notion that the state is “God walking on earth.” We need revival and reformation in full force to vanquish the problems that plague us as a nation — from government controlled healthcare — to abortion on demand — to same sex “marriage.” This booklet gives a primer on our founders’ Christian idea of government and examines how the doctrine of nullification was woven into the Constitution as a safeguard against federal tyranny. It concludes with the history and theology of civil resistance. A Second American Revolution is coming with the Word of God growing mightily and prevailing! (Acts 19:20).

The Abortion Matrix:
Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death is a 195-minute presentation that traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God has produced. You can order this series on DVD, read the complete script and view clips on-line...continued ...